Brussels Environment enters into discussion with Narafi about ‘illegal parking’ in Duden Park
More and more cars cross the Duden Park, on their way to the parking lot at the castle where film school Narafi is housed. After questions from MP Marc-Jean Ghyssels (PS), Brussels Environment wants to put a stop to this. The agency will ask the film school to submit an application for an environmental permit.
The Duden Park belongs to the Royal Donation, but is managed by Brussels Environment. Normally, only vehicles belonging to technicians and maintenance teams are allowed to enter the park. But local residents pointed out to Ghyssels that more and more cars are driving through the park. This week, the MP asked for an explanation from Environment Minister Alain Maron (Ecolo) and State Secretary for Urban Planning Pascal Smet (One.Brussels/Vooruit).
Film and photography school Narafi (part of Luka School of Arts) has a convention with the Royal Endowment for the use of the castle in the park. “It also states that management, staff, students and visitors may use the grounds in front of the castle to park there,” says Renaud Tondeur, director of Green Spaces at Brussels Environment to BRUZZ.
That agreement exists according to La Capitale already before the legal protection of the park, and the introduction of a mandatory permit for parking in 1992. “But the manager of the park can create the construction of it. For a parking lot with more than ten”, an environmental permit is required in the newspaper.
400 meters through the park
There is no dying. “In the beginning, it was just a few cars, from suppliers and (guest) professors, in the spirit of the convention,” says Tondeur. “But the time becomes very difficult for us to control. People get used to parking there. More and more cars are crossing the park from the Victor Rousseau, towards the castle.”
Tondeur cannot say whether it concerns students of teachers or other visitors to the park. But it is clear to him that the current is swelling. Ten wagons are parked almost at any time now. To get to the car park, they have to navigate 400 meters through the park from the Victor Rousseaulaan.
Brussels Environment will contact Narafi “next week”, says director of Green Spaces Tondeur. They will ask the school to submit an environmental permit for the buildings, which will be delivered subject to conditions.
“It must once again become a parking space in the spirit of the convention,” says Tondeur. “So mostly for supplies and occasionally for professors, but not for everything and everyone.”